Andromeda
by Sky Ventaris
Summary: It has been a hundred and fifty six years since the end of the Reaper War. The galaxy has been thrown into chaos, old alliances are dead and the Council is shattered. Threats both new and old are emerging from the dark corners of the Galaxy and an old king is moving back to claim what is his. I suck at summaries, bunch of new OC and even a new race somewhere down the line. Enjoy
1. Prologue

**Summary:** **It has been a hundred and fifty six years since the end of the Reaper War. The galaxy has been thrown into chaos, old alliances are dead and the Council is shattered. Threats both new and old are emerging from the dark corners of the Galaxy and an old king is moving back to claim what is his.**

 **Authors Notes:** **Hey guys, wow it has been a long time since I posted anything I'm kinda embarrassed about that but I've got this all nice and lined up for you. Don't let the title fool you this isn't a Mass Effect 4 story of 'what ifs' or 'could bes'. The title was inspired loosely by the Story of Andromeda in Greek mythology. With the leviathan's hubris bringing about the reapers and all that… I said loosely.**

 **Okay it's nothing like the Greek myth but I like the name.**

 **So this is the prologue just basically summing up the major events after the Reaper war and it gives you a loose idea of what happened during the war as well. I'm leaving certain details blank on purpose so that they can be treated as myths in the story.**

 **This is more of less the short version of what they would teach the kids in the schools.**

 **Anyway please enjoy. Be sure to comment if you feel I left any gaping holes in the set up.**

######

 **Prologue**

 **######**

The reaper war was over. After months of intense fighting and at the cost of billions of lives the war came to a sudden end. The Galaxy's troubles though were just beginning.

In 2186 the war ended and the reapers left, just left, leaving only their broken remains, the shattered bodies of their fallen soldiers and a single large data burst to the fleet orbiting Earth. They simply dropped everything, recalled their ground forces and jumped to FTL, on every planet, in every system. They left billions dead and untold levels of destruction in their wake but those were things that the Galaxy could recover from, given enough time.

The first problem of this new era was both as obvious as it was devastating to the civilizations of the Galaxy. The energy wave emitted by the Crucible had not only overwhelmed the Citadel and the Crucible, crippling both, but destroyed the mass relays. All of them, the entire relay network was gone, leaving entire clusters cut off from one another.

With the relays gone galactic communication came to a standstill. The sudden disappearance of the reapers combined with many key leadership figures being in the Sol system supporting the final battle led to a disorganised, ineffective response from the majority of the Galaxy. Sol, being the only system to know what had happened, was the only system that was able to properly organize after what had happened.

While the rest of the galaxy wasted their time flailing, Earth, with the combined efforts of every race present and with plans transmitted by the withdrawing reaper forces, began the construction of their first Mass Relay. They had the designs, if they canalized some of their fleet they would have the resources and thanks to the reaper data packet they had the location of every relay that had been in the network.

The leaders at Earth clearly understood the damage that could be caused to the galactic community if there was a total communications blackout for too long but even with their worry and desperation speeding them along, it still took almost three years before the mass relay in the sol system was ready for use.

Every manufacturing plant in the system had been destroyed and Earth itself was no more than a steaming pile of rubble now. This meant that they had to begin from scratch, stripping ships down not only for the raw materials they needed but also so they could build the machines needed to make use of them. The process wasn't fool proof either, more than a few accidents and mistakes befell the allied forces as they constructed the relay.

After their eventual first success the next relay was easier to build and the one after that even easier, however it wasn't the technical complexity of the relays that started causing problems.

Once the relays leading out of alliance territory were completed the different races started bidding to have the relays to their own systems constructed first. With their resources limited to the number of ships they were willing to take apart and their production capabilities so limited they could only afford to build one relay at a time. Even so soon after the war relations started breaking down between some species.

It took nearly another decade before the primary network used by the galaxy was repaired and by that point relations between the various races within the allied fleet had worsened. This was not just from the tensions caused by the relay problem however with the war over and the tension of impending death gone soldiers and civilians were starting to point fingers at each other over the actions and secrets that the war had brought to light.

It was an open secret among the allied fleet that Commander Shepard had discovered a working Prothean beacon in the heart of Thessia's capital city and everyone knew that the Asari refused to attend the initial war summit gathered by Commander Shepard. The war summit that agreed to cure the genophage and bring the Krogan into the war effort. It would not be an understatement to say that the Asari had gone from being one of the most respected races in the galaxy to being the pariahs of society.

Not all relations soured however, the Geth, Krogan, Turian and Terran relations remained very strong as each of these four races had been major contributors to the war front start to end.

The years following the repair of the relay network went from bad to worse and saw the death toll of the war rising even years after the reapers left. Many systems and planets, feeling deserted after so long being isolated seeded from their host nations. Planets like Noveria, Ilium and Santeri who had always kept a neutral front truly became independent. Others though, didn't survive their extended isolation dozens of outlying colonies were lost either due to starvation or because they couldn't get specialty equipment or resources that they were dependent on.

A year after the network was repaired the council was officially disbanded and council space abolished. The various Territories fell back into the host nations hands.

The Salarians pulled back into their own territory, almost pulling out of the galactic community altogether. However unknown to the rest of the galaxy the Salarians were cleaning their house. The union did not approve of the Krogan being given a cure but many dissident elements opposed the ruling body, and what they viewed as dated and archaic stances on the Galaxy.

That wasn't the only change to come to the galactic community though. The Volus Protectorate separated itself from the Turian Hierarchy and for the first time since taking to the stars became an independent state.

Not long after the Hierarchy, shaken by the loss of the Volus, fell into a civil war. Many wanted a revolution, they thought that the Hierarchy had become too set on maintaining tradition. There were strong feelings that the military had become too soft. Primarch Adrian Victus, the once praised hero died in the brief bloody civil war. Where the leader was once praised he was quickly denounced on both sides as the Primarch that retreated from Palavan, lost their protectorate race and allowed the Turian people to take up arms once again against each other. The civil war saw a splinter group of dissident Turians split away from the Hierarchy naming themselves the Valluvian after the ancient Turian priests who used to guide their people. The Hierarchy reformed itself and its structure but kept their name becoming the New Hierarchy.

The Turians were not the only ones facing a crisis however, the Salarian Union while initially intending to quickly and quietly remove some dissident factions from their ranks found themselves on the defensive as several clan Dalatrassess were quietly assassinated. It wasn't as public as the Turian civil war but it quickly became just as bloody.

The Asari were having difficulty as well, though on a significantly less violent scale, while they were unified as a race their government relied almost solely on open communication to run. With so much damage done to their worlds the wheel of the Asari republic was turning slow indeed.

Humanity stood united more than ever before, despite the total loss of their government and the near complete destruction of their homeworld several factors brought mankind together. The first was their shared suffering at the loss of their homeworld and the second was Shepard. Even dead the hero flocked millions to the cause. With the destruction of Arcturus Station Admiral Steven Hackett became the commander and chief of the Alliance and Humanity. Gathering thousands of survivors to their 'Local' Clusters to regroup and rebuild.

Surprisingly, when compared to the major races the minor races recovered far more quickly. The Elcor and Hanar had self-sustaining economies before the war and despite the damage caused by the war and the communications black out they were well on their way to healing several years after the war.

The Geth were hardly affected in the aftermath, as they had no concept of an economy. The synthetic life forms simply repaired the damage the war had done to their military forces and territory and simply waited. They kept open lines of communication with all nations however.

The Krogan pulled back to their homeworld and under the leadership of Urdnot Wrex began to repopulate and rebuild their homeworld. It would be several decades before the Krogan came to realise that the genophage, while not leaving them with piles of stillborn to bury was not a completely cured. Padok Wilks had cured the Genophage but the damage to the shroud and the Salarian's lack of prior experience with the disease meant that the Krogan birth rate was several times lower than what it had been generations past but every Krogan was now fertile.

By the wars end the Batarian race had been reduced to a population of less than a million spread out across the galaxy. The hegemony was no more, Batarian territory was an entire area of space that had become scorched earth.

The Quarians were even worse off, at the finale of the battle of Rannoch the Geth were unable to get an accurate count of the number of ships escaping the decimated migrant fleet but they put the numbers as no more than twelve. Meaning that there were at most a thousand Quarians left.

Despite the galactic nation's best efforts, the Turian civil war and eventual split, the Salarian cold war, the stagnate Asari, the clearly struggling Alliance and the loss of so many garden worlds and colonies lead them to a point where they couldn't hope to hold out. There was just too much damage, too many wounds that were still too fresh and oozing precious life blood. The matter was only made worse when the pirates of the terminus systems came back in force. Driven into desperation by many of the same problems the Nations of the Galaxy were having.

The galaxy was falling into chaos, outer colonies that hadn't died or seeded away were simply abandoned and what was left of the military was pulled back to protect the inner systems.

The worst had yet to come.

In 2208, twenty two years after the war's end, after suffering under four years of constant and damaging pirate attack the major galactic powers began rationing food and water on a massive scale.

The reapers didn't just target planets of military importance during the war, many garden worlds whose sole purpose was the production of food were hit as well. Those damages, coupled with the still crippled galactic economy and increasing pirate attacks which forced governments to withdraw from leading garden worlds led to a serious decrease in food production.

The situation was the same all across the galaxy, food once so easy to obtain was becoming scarce. While the different nations rationed to save what they could the pirate attacks increased desperate to take what they could.

The situation quickly spiraled out of control until riots were becoming more and more frequent. People were beginning to starve all across the galaxy.

That was when the Andromeda Corporation appeared.

The Andromeda family had been a long time wealthy human business family for several generations. However their monetary standing only grew to epic proportions after they began to support Cerberus. The Andromeda family was just one of several families and business to support Cerberus but Mathew Andromeda quickly rose to prominence under their support.

It was when, the then young heir of the Andromeda family took over that things began to change. Carlston Andromeda didn't agree with the same extremes as his father had but he still believed in Cerberus' ideals.

Carlston was the head of the Andromeda when the Reaper War began and survived to witness its conclusion. As a senior member of Cerberus Carlston was able to quietly consolidate most of the organizations financial assets before the war was over. By the end of the war Carlston Andromeda was set up to become a very wealthy man.

He reclaimed his wealth when the relay network was repaired and started supporting various relief efforts across the galaxy partly out of a desire to help and partly out of guilt.

In 2207 when the threat of food rationing was becoming a very real possibility Carlston starting making preparations.

The Turian Hierarchy never decommissioned military naval equipment, every ship, every fighter, every bomb was stored. The entire historical Turian naval force was kept in cold storage. The storage sites were meant to be classified but Cerberus had access to them so Carlston knew about them.

The head of the family approached the New Hierarchy, who had retained the sites after the schism and subsequent exile of the Valluvian. The new government was hesitant to sell, admittedly outdated but still lethal, ships of war but were desperate for the lump sum income that Andromeda offering.

Carlston spent close to his entire fortune, buying everything from the old Turian dreadnoughts and carriers to troop transports.

His plan wasn't to fight the pirates and impose any kind of order however, no Calrston took the hundreds of ships, most heavy Capital class, into Geth space.

Once there he began intense negotiations with the Geth, his plan was to convert each of the ships that he had produced into massive food production factories much like the quarrian live ships.

The Geth were hesitant at first, the modifications would be a significant investment for them however the Geth were eventually swayed by two main factors. The first was that the Geth had no real way of interacting with Organics, despite the good will their contributions to the war had brought them many still distrusted them and feared them. The opportunity that Carlston was presenting them would ensure that the galaxy saw them in a positive light. The second was that they had been taught by Legion to value organic life and if they did not do something to assist many lives would be lost.

The Geth pulled the vessels apart and worked tirelessly for a year, they were limited only by the number of platforms that they could assign to each ship which was not a small number.

At the end of the year Carlston had just under a hundred ships that had been codenamed ARC. The vessels were two kilometers long behemoths, larger that Alliance and Turian dreadnoughts, with twelve decks, nine of which were used solely for food production. Massive greenhouse areas with optimal conditions for plant growth. Water treatment and food processing plants took up most of the final three decks.

The Geth, having been given complete control over the production of the ARC class, had created the ARC carriers to produce basic survival rations. Despite the best efforts of the Geth and Carlston an ugly fact reared its head. Even a thousand ARC Carriers wouldn't be enough to feed all the people in the galaxy. It was a start however.

When the Andromeda Corporation was announced the response was dramatic. What Carlston thought of as personal wealth before was nothing compared to what he was being offered by the governments around the Galaxy. With nothing but Geth and himself in the actual company and no actual headquarters Andromeda operated solely from their Arc Carriers.

The company exploded with desperate contracts however. Carlston had the food supplies ready to be delivered but no way to transport it. In a matter of weeks Andromeda had gone from being a no name company to being the most well-known organization in the galaxy.

There was a limit to what Carlston and the Geth could do however, even with the ruthless efficiency of the Geth and the ARC carriers producing millions of rations they had to be selective. There was no way they could feed them all but they could relieve the pressure a great deal.

The next few years brought about a massive change to the Galaxy, with Andromeda taking the food pressures off of the government, life was becoming a little more stable. Andromeda was growing by the day as more and more ARC carriers were being built.

The Geth were finally greeted with open arms for their part in the production and protection of the ARC carriers. Individual Geth platforms were being accepted across the Galaxy just like true organic life. Carlston Andromeda died at the age of one hundred years and left the company in the hands of his son Richard Andromeda. While his father had dedicated himself to simply keeping the galaxy from starving Richard charged into his career with a vengeance. The second generation Andromeda began mass production of ARC Carriers all over the Galaxy.

For years he pushed the company making it a new superpower. Andromeda was the first and only port of call for foods and produce.

Richards ruled for sixty four years before he died leaving the company in the hands of his eighteen year old son, Malcolm Andromeda.

This is the story of how Andromeda's third generation shook the Galaxy.

######

 **Author notes:** **Okay so this entire chapter is basically my summary. I hope you guys are looking forward to this because I am.**

 **Review equal hugs and love. I need both.**


	2. Chapter 1: The Family

**Summary:** **It has been a hundred and fifty six years since the end of the Reaper War. The galaxy has been thrown into chaos, old alliances are dead and the Council is shattered. Threats both new and old are emerging from the dark corners of the Galaxy and an old king is moving back to claim what is his.**

 **Authors note:** **Well this took a little bit longer than I expected, I was going to try and go for an update a week but with work and if all goes well I'll be joining up with the RAF in a few weeks that's not likely to happen. So I'll try for another update in two weeks and we'll see what happens after that.**

 **Now I feel I should warn people that there will be plenty of implied homo- and heterosexual themes throughout this story. I may even write something steamy at a later date if that's not your thing then I shall direct your attention to the back button at the top left corner of your screen.**

 **Now to the two lovely people who left reviews.**

 **Nc34:** **Yeah I pulled some inspiration from history and thank you for the compliment I hope I can keep the good start.**

 **Guest:** **Now I got an email saying you left this but it hasn't popped up on the system yet. Either way thank you for the compliment I was aiming for something different.**

 **Now onwards!**

 **######**

 **Chapter 1: The Family**

 **######**

Daniel was barely through the door before deciding that he needed to go out again. It had, as always, been a long day of work, and he was becoming increasingly sick of it. He could typically deal with the mundane existence, but tonight...tonight he was going to need a few drinks to level things out in his head.

The human threw his bag onto the table in the small apartment and gave himself a quick look over in the mirror. He wasn't much to look at, short brown hair with deep blue eyes average height, average build, average… well everything really. Just another number in some machine somewhere.

He shook that thought out of his head with a heavy sigh, he really needed a drink just to relax a bit. Fortunately, he knew just the place, and they wouldn't give a shit that he was dressed from just coming out the office. A short walk too; only took him about five minutes to arrive at the low lit exterior, get inside, move up onto a stool and order himself a drink and something to eat. He knew along with everyone else that they should be grateful that Andromeda came along and saved the galaxy from starving but the _food_ that there were given was either a protein sludge that was of questionable nutritional value or the ration bars that made your mouth lose all moisture and took an age to chew threw.

Still, this planet wasn't going to get any better for decades. Supposedly the inner more important worlds got better quality food but only if you could afford it. Daniel seriously doubted that he would be able to on his crappy salary. He could barely afford his rent as it was.

The drink came with a sympathetic look that Daniel knew was all too practiced, the bartenders in here probably saw the same thing day in and day out. Didn't matter on Derrax if you were Terran, Turian, Asari, Krogan or Batarian. Everyone was in the same boat and they were all equally sick of it. The worked, either drank or worked some more, spelt and repeat. None of them had any chance of leaving, they were all stuck.

He glanced to his side...and made glancing eye contact with a Turian, who was looking at him as if he could read Daniel's mind. They gave each other a friendly nod before the Turian decided to speak, his flanged voice sending shivers down Daneil's spine, he loved listening to Turian's speak.

"You look like you've had a hard day." The Turian chuckled, Daniel felt a little exposed when those dark green eyes gave him a good look over. It took him a moment to notice that he was looking the Turian over just as thoroughly taking note of the strong muscles that stood out on his exposed arms despite the plates covering them. "Straight from the office?"

"Aren't we all," Dan sighed, glad to see someone sympathetic as he scooped up his drink, it was refreshing to find someone every once and a while who seemed to actually give a damn. "What about you? Been here a while?"

"Shorter than I'd like but probably longer than I should," the Turian lifted his glass and shrugged clearly not at all bothered by his statement. "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours?"

"Just some beer for now, figure I can move onto the ryncol shots later," Daniel smirked, liking this Turian's bluntness.

"I meant your problems," the Turian laughed, he stared at Daniel for a moment before holding out a talented hand. "Adrian Vitarian, and keep making me laugh and I'll buy you a shot or two."

"Daniel Williams, and that's a good deal. Though maybe hold off on the ryncol for the first couple," he winked. "As for problems, just the usual. Dead end job, boring work, most of the office on my back half the time. All shit you'll hear a thousand people complain about at a bar."

"Yeah that does seem to be the main topic of conversation, well that and the bad food."

"Well, we can move onto that in half an hour when I actually get my food."

"Well your choices are limited, you've got warm protein paste and cold protein paste. Both with powdered seasonings and an array of sauces," Adrian took a glance over his shoulder at a Krogan behind him wolfing down a large bowl of red hued paste. "I swear people eat more sauce than the actual paste."

"Wouldn't surprise me. Sauce actually has some flavor to it," the human laughed. "So, come on. I gave you my problems, you give me yours."

"Well believe it or not I don't actually have an office job, I've got the joys of full time babysitting my younger brother and keeping my older brothers from doing anything too crazy." The Turian sighed and stared into his drink for a long moment. "Doesn't help when he's got a whole bunch of self-destructive tendencies though."

"Well. Suppose drinking is one way to postpone dealing with them," Dan smiled apologetically. He himself was an only child, his parents were both gone and he didn't know if he had any other relatives, if he did he'd never met them. "You've got my sympathies, though. Siblings can be a pain... Or so I hear."

"You don't have any?"

"Never had the pleasure, but from what people have told me I'm almost glad of that."

"Yeah I learned that lesson the hard way, still I probably seem like a hypocrite to him. Here I am drinking away my problems when I tell him he needs to stop drinking," Adrian looked at his drink for another long moment before downing it and ordering another. "Still have the moral high ground on drugs though."

"It's that bad?" Really he wasn't sure he wanted to know any more, his life sucked enough as it was without piling another person's woes on top of everything but something about Adrian made him _want_ to know. "Least that's something though, I doubt the bar has a handy stash of red sand or Hallex behind the bar."

"Personally I prefer creeper." Adrian muttered getting a shocked blink out of Dan. "It's a… well let's just say I experimented a few years ago everything else leaves you with such a down that it's not worth taking Creeper didn't it was… fun."

"Your moral high ground just crumbled."

"I know, it wasn't much of one to start with," Adrian chuckled, the Turian knocked back his drink again and tapped the bar for another.

"How many of those have you had?" Daniel asked, that was the third since he sat down a few minutes ago. He knew Turians had stronger livers but really was Adrian looking to drink himself under?

"Oh this would make… twelve?" the Asari bartender glanced at Adrian's tab and nodded pressing her lips together in what could have been disapproval or simple worry. "Yeah twelve, don't worry I'm not your average Turian, it'll take more than this to knock me on my ass."

"Riiight." Well it would be interesting watching him get drunk if nothing else, as the thought went through his head a plate of warm nutritional paste was pushed under his nose, the smell already doing wonders to kill his appetite. Adrian actually stopped drinking to look down at the steaming mush that passed for food on this planet. "So red sauce or the blue sauce?"

"Both?" Adrian leaned over to sniff the plate and couldn't help but recoil. "Is that actually the standard paste or some watered down scrappings from the waste system?"

"Hey! I actually have to eat this, it sucks but it will keep me going." Dan decided on blue paste today but found a taloned hand around his wrist when he reached for the bottle. "Red sauce?"

"No, neither I'm not letting you eat that _Guenvi,"_ the human blinked as he was ushered out of the bar in quick order. Adrian paid for the food and drinks with a quick swipe of his credit chit and they were in an air car before Daniel could even think to protest.

"Am I being kidnapped?" he was only half joking as he watched the buildings and slums of Darrax speed past them. It was probably the nicest most civilized kidnapping he had heard of but he was getting the feeling that he wasn't going to be leaving until Adrian said he could. Now why did that bring a smile to his face?

"Yes, yes you are and as your kidnapper I have a responsibility to see to it that my hostage is fed and watered." Dan was pinned with such an intense stare that he couldn't find it in him to even crack a joke. He had no idea who this turian was or really where he was being taken. For all he knew Adrian wasn't even his name and he was some kind of raping, murdering, serial kidnapper or something.

The silence that built between them was anything but awkward or scared though. Daniel honestly felt comfortable sitting beside the turian in the air car going god only knew where… actually it looked like they were heading for the spaceport and yet he still couldn't find it in him to be worried.

"So what was that word back there, my translator couldn't make heads or tails or it." Dan asked.

"Guenvi?" When Dan nodded again he suddenly realized that his translator hadn't said a single thing since he met the Turian. "It's a very… _colourful_ word for a pile of excrement." Yeah he was speaking Terran, aka English, which had become the dominant language for humanity since the Reaper War. Other Terran dialects had been lost to history or the occasional family that still taught their children a few words here or there.

"How can you speak Terran? I thought Turian's had a hard time with it?"

"It's a lot easier for a Turian to learn Terran than it is for a Terran to learn our language." Well that was stating the obvious, half of the Turian's language came through with their sub vocals, something other races could heard and with a bit of effort understand but never quite replicate. "I know what you're thinking and would you believe me if I said that I actually met and Asari who had a second Larynx surgically implanted to replicate our sub vocals?"

"Was she any good at it?" A hand went up to stroke his throat as he thought about how that would work. Why people weren't just happy being who they were he didn't kn… Wait did that thought make him a hypocrite? He was perfectly happy being human with all his human bits but he hated his life. Hmm food for thought.

"She was passable, it's more instinctive than she thought it would be and let's just say some of the things that came out of her mouth would make a batarian blush." They shared a chuckle as the air car came into a private port, what looked like an entire company of Blue Suns were patrolling the perimeter armor gleaming and weapons held at a casual readiness.

"Right erm," Daniel felt a small stab of worry beginning to form as he took the dock. There were snipers and even a platoon of LOKI mechs inside the gates. "Seriously should I be worried now? You're not some kind of crime boss are you?"

"No to both, don't worry I'm just rich." The wink, aside from being a surprisingly human gesture, did nothing to curb Daniel's worry stricken thoughts. Adrian just got out of the car and walked right up to the compound with Daniel hot on his spurs. A simple card check and visual inspection got them both through with a respectful nod. "We pay the Blue Suns a lot of money for privacy and protection. Don't worry you're safe in here."

"That also means that I'm trapped if you want to actually kidnap me," Dan pointed out frowning at the low rumble he got as a response, he worked with enough Turians to know that he was being laughed at even if Adrian's mandibles were infuriatingly steady in their position. He'd never known a Turian to have such good control over their expressions, Turians were terrible liars.

"True but I'm just going to feed you and then get drunk and tell funny stories." Dan tried to stare down the pleasant smile that screamed smug being directed at him but didn't get very far. In the end he threw his arms up into the air and let out an explosive sigh.

"Well you already bought me dinner."

"I have no idea what that's meant to mean."

"I don't think it was really meant to mean anything."

The pair walked in silence for a moment before they entered the hanger proper and Daniel got his first look at the ship that they were heading towards. His brain may have exploded just the slightest bit as the familiar curves and distinctive design flew out at him.

"Is that the fucking _NORMANDY?_ " There was no way, it was not even remotely possible that this Turian had the ship that Commander Fucking Shepard had all but made into a myth. The vessel that was originally a collaboration between Terran and Turian engineers, the first ever stealth frigate. That design was then built upon by the rogue terrorist organization Cerberus and the NORMANDY SR-2 was put into service and severed as Commander Shepard's flagship for the entirety of the Reaper War. The SR-2 had apparently been stolen from the Alliance decades ago though no one knew how or who could have pulled off the stunt.

"No of course not," Daniel deflated almost instantly and felt a hot blush creeping up his neck at the way Adrian was looking at him. "It is a third generation Normandy class ship though."

"Third generation?"

"Yeah, _the_ NORMANDY was only a first generation Normandy class, the originally SR-1 being the prototype. This ship is far more advanced and incredibly more powerful than the first and second generations."

"I'm guessing it's a lot more expensive as well?" Daneil asked looking over the ship with a more critical eye. He actually happened to know a bit about starship design as it was something of a hobby.

"You could say that, the prototype NORMANDY, the SR-1, cost an astronomical amount to build because of the Tantalus Drive core. It was massive and easily bigger than anything up to something you would put into a dreadnaught. The SR-2 had a drive core three times the size of the SR-1 so you can imagine how much more expensive it was, that's without the other upgrades that the SR-2 had."

"I take it theres a big gap between the prices of the three generation then?" Daneil was quickly trying to come up with a figure in his head and simultaneously trying to imagine just how wealthy Adrian had to be to be able to afford any generation of Normandy.

"Between the first and second not so much."

"Really?"

"Relatively speaking, you're talking hundreds of millions the jump between the first and second generation was small."

"What about between the second and third?"

"The third generation costs five times the amount of the second." Adrian let that sink in for a moment before hitting Dan with an actual figure. "Three point eight four seven billions credits."

There was a moment of silence. "Who the hell are you?" Adrian was shocked for a moment by the steal in Daniel's voice he could see it in the way the Turian took a half step back but he quickly recovered and smiled.

"Right now a Turian who only wants to give you a nice meal for a change."

"Why?"

"You look like you could use one." Dan flinched when Adrian ran his damned brilliant deep forest green eyes over him. He knew he was little more than skin and bones but he didn't want pity or whatever it was this was turning out to be. "Come on Daniel I'll give you the grand tour and then we can eat something. I know it doesn't look like it but I really just want to have a decent meal with an interesting guy that I met in a bar."

"Nothing else?"

"Nothing else, you have my word."

Another minute of silence passed between them before Daniel nodded slowly and followed Adrian to the airlock, he had never been inside a ship of any kind before but this was meant to be a warship. One of the best ever designed by all accounts. A show of what Humans and Turians could do if they worked together, that kind of thinking was a foreign concept these days. After the war Terrans, Turians and even the Krogan were best of friends, allies even so long after the war.

"So what do you do and how do you do it to afford this ship?" Adrian chuckled and scratched at his throat something Daniel recognised as an uncomfortable gesture.

"Well you see this ship was actually free."

"Free?" Dan repeated staring after the Turian for a stunned second as Adrian walked out of the decon chamber and onto the ship proper. "Who in their right minds gives away a three point eight four seven billions credit warship?!"

"The Geth."

The shrill cry of surprise that came out of Daniel's mouth was unfortunately not one of his most dignified moments but in his defense the lights were dimmed inside of the ship in respect of the plants night cycle and the Geth standing just inside the cockpit was a rather dark grey. Jumping behind Adrian however was a blow that his pride was probably not going to recover from.

"Greetings." Daniel struggled to slow his heart down for a second as Adrian devolved into a fit of laughter, the Turian was struggling to breathe for completely the wrong reasons and Dan felt his entire face flush as a result. It didn't help that the plates around the Geth's… face? Its optics were twitching in clear confusion at the actions going on infront of it.

"Oh spirits… Oh Galatea please tell me you can send me that scream." Adrian laughed, the turian was having trouble standing he was laughing so hard something Daniel felt completely justified smacking the turian's arm for. Whether it had any kind of impact though Dan didn't know, Adrian's arm felt like steel and it wasn't just his plates either.

"He caught me by surprise," Daniel growled knowing full well that his face was doing its best impression of a tomato but pulling what was left of his dignity around him admirably. "You can stop laughing any time."

"Sorry," It took an obvious effort to contain his chuckling but Adrian was able to reign it in to only a sub vocal hum. "Daniel Williams meet Galatea a member of the Geth Consensus. Galatea meet Daniel Williams random stranger I picked up in a bar."

A glare was all the Turian got as Geth and Terran shook hands. "A pleasure to meet you Galatea, you're the first Geth I've ever met."

"There are many Geth who choose to venture from our space but none have chosen to come here. I am not surprised that you have yet to make an acquaintance among us." Aside from the obvious fact that Galatea was a Geth platform and not an actual organic Daniel couldn't really tell the difference just from his voice. At least he thought Galatea was a he, the voice synthesized was clearly more masculine than feminine his hands were even slightly warm. "It is good to meet you."

"Likewise. So the geth gave Adrian this ship?"

"Negative this ship was given over to the-"

"Ah! Galatea we talked about this," Adrian cut and moved Daniel away from the synthetic as Galatea shook his optics, the petals around his optics flaring in and out. If he were a betting man Dan would say there was frustration or maybe exasperation. "Sorry I know you're probably full of questions but there really isn't a lot that I can tell you without giving away everything and painting a target on my families backs."

"Okay." He got that, any family of importance, prominent or powerful enough to warrant the Geth given them a ship like this, one famous for stealth, probably had a lot of enemies. Hell the Andromeda family probably had enemies by the planet load but they were human, actually Dan wondered if Adrian was talking about them. You certainly didn't take on Andromeda and get away lightly not with how tight their relations were to every government in the civilized Galaxy. You don't bight the hand that feeds you. "So tell me about this ship, I know the SR-2 had Silaris heavy armour and multicore shielding but if that was two generations ago…"

Adrian smiled gently, leading Dan down the neck of the ship towards the CIC as he pointed to the hull. There wasn't a single person in any of the console stations and no one in the CIC either, in fact it looked like the entire deck was powered down as well.

"Actually before that," Daniel snapped glancing back towards Galatea and stopping whatever Adrian was about to say. "Where are all your crew? You're not on here alone… are you?"

"No of course not." Adrian jerked his head towards the Geth who was moving to take the copilots chair. "We don't actually use the ship for combat, Galatea is interfaced directly with the ship so he handles all the minor functions. When we do move my little brother flies, I man engineering, my twin the CIC critical commands and my older brother weapons. You know just in case."

"Of course, just in case."

"Yeah, and to answer your question the Silaris heavy armor was the second gen armor, this ship has Adamantium armour…"

"…"

"…"

"You're looking at me as if that should mean something?" Daniel deadpanned, seriously Adrian's mandibles were twitching to try and stop the turian from breaking out into a huge grin. When it was clear that Daniel was obviously clueless as to the significance of the name Adrian's mandibles drooped.

"It's a sad, sad day when a Turian knows more about human culture than you do." Daniel felt like he had to say something in his defence but really couldn't come up with anything to say. What the hell was adamantium, it certainly sounded like a metal? "Anyway, adamantium is the name of the armor, it has the Silaris trade mark design of carbon nano tubing as its central material with diamond chemical vapor deposition but it's mixed in with a synthetic heavy metal that is significantly stronger than steel and completely vibration absorbent. Nothing short of a direct hit from a destroyer class Thannix cannon is going to penetrate the amour."

"As for the shields they are the same multicore cyclonic barrier shield technology but they've been heavily upgraded with Geth shield technology with uses a kind of crystal to 'knit' the shields together making them much stronger than before."

"So all in all this ship is-"

"Probably one of the strongest ships in the Galaxy, it can certainly go toe to toe with anything the Alliance or the New Hierarchy can throw at it." Adrian smirked at the low whistle before pulling his human along to the elevator. "Now I have to ensure that my hostage is fed and watered."

The hostage raised his arms in surrender and let himself be dragged along, he really was getting hungry now.

######

There were few things Daniel seriously enjoyed in life, being on an insignificant planet on the edge of Alliance space meant that there wasn't much for him to enjoy but Darrax had some nice points in its favor, not many but enough. The human would trade every last one of them to be able to just smell whatever the hell he was smelling once again after tonight before he died.

"And here is your steak, some kind of vegetable and I think they're called sweet potatoes." Adrian grinned his mandibles spread wide in a Turian smile as he sat opposite Daniel. The plate that was set in front of him had a slab of Varren meat on it a cluster of green beans and a couple sweet potatoes, Adrian's plate was similarly laden. Daniel really couldn't believe that he was being offered a real meal. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Daniel snatched up his knife and fork suddenly afraid that it was going to be taken away from him but in reality he didn't know where to start. The smell alone was enough to make his mouth water. Adrian just sat staring at him with a smile, Daniel got the feeling that Adrian knew exactly what was going through his head and oddly enough that though made Dan feel okay.

He went for the steak first, cutting off a large bit and just watched as the juices dripped off of it for a moment before he carefully put the sliver of meat into his mouth. In that moment Dan realized that he had just opened Pandora's box. The steak was delicious, perfectly cooked in his inexperienced opinion and a wealth of flavors and textures that he had never experienced before… The backlash though was going to be agonising.

This romantic little dinner or whatever it was that Adrian was trying to do was anything but the kind gesture that the Turian seemed to think it was. After this Dan was going to go back to a life of nutrient paste and ration bars. What was the point of showing someone what life could be like if they had absolutely no hope of reaching it?

It was tempting to cling onto that spike of anger because it was far more appealing than the hollowness that Dan knew was going to develop when he went home and looked at what he had to eat in comparison to people like Adrian. He was never one for anger though and the Turian seemed so genuine that Dan just enjoyed the taste and texture of the food, why soil a good thing?

"I know that… well someone in your position can't afford these things," Adrian glanced to the side when Dan tried to meet his gaze. Whether he was ashamed or simply embarrassed the human didn't know but Adrian was clearly uncomfortable. "Just the way you looked at that slop… I thought this would."

This time the silence was awkward and Adrian was glaring down at the food on his plate.

"Thank you."

"What?"

"For this," Impossibly deep green eyes met pale blue as Adrian stared at Dan. "I've lived on Darrax my whole life. I watched my parents die just trying to put ration bars and nutrient paste on the table for me when I was a kid. Started work when I was twelve just to try and feed myself when they finally couldn't take it anymore. You know how many people have done something like this, just done something nice for me because they can and honestly want to?"

"You must have friends." Adrian started to argue but quickly shut up when Dan shook his head.

"You have coworkers and family… both as likely to stab you in the back," Dan looked down at the steak and smiled brightly. "So thank you… for all of this."

"Your welcome."

They ate in silence for a while, Dan simply enjoying the sensations of eating something real for a change and trying to engrain the flavor forever in his mind so that he never forgot it while Adrian switched between watching with a fond smile and eating his own food.

It took a while for Dan to notice that the Turian didn't chew his food at all, rather he seemed to just swallow it.

"What?"

"I just realised, turians don't have molars right?"

"No we don't," Adrian leaned over and opened his mouth and mandibles wide so Dan could see. True to form they didn't, just a single row of razor sharp teeth that looked more like needles than teeth. "We cut off strips and swallow them whole. However many thousands of years ago, my species was more akin to birds than we are now, we never developed teeth for chewing like humans did. We tore strips off of our kills."

"So how do you taste anything if you don't chew?" If you didn't have taste buds then paste or steak it didn't matter what you ate so long as it was fuel.

"We have some taste buds on our tongue but we have far more lining the back of our mouths and throat. We taste it as it goes down." To demonstrate the Turian cut a strip of meat off of his steak and dropped it down his mouth with a pair of sharp looking chop sticks. The pleasant rumble let Dan know that he more than enjoyed the taste. "We used to just use our talons but then we got 'civilized' and developed utensils." Dan chuckled at the air quotes but found his gaze drawn to the gloved talons, he had never seen a Turian without gloves of some kind on their talons. He had always just assumed that it was a utility thing, after all its had to function if your fingers are cutting or gouging strips out of whatever they're touching but here he was with a Turian in a relaxed situation, heck this ship was Adrian's home and he still had his gloves on.

"Why do all wear gloves?"

"Do you know any other races that have claws or talons Daniel?"

"No."

"No, because there aren't any. I don't know if it started out that way but it's become something of a social stigma for a Turian to have his talons bare in public. It's seen as indecent, uncivilized." Adrian played with his glove for a moment before glancing up at Dan and sliding it off of his hand flexing the sharp digits out. "So it became something that was ever only done in private or with people that you considered to be close with."

Adrian put his hand palm up in the middle of the table as if daring Dan to touch them. Not willing to be out done Dan carefully ran a finger down one of Adrian's talons and gently over the edge.

"Can you feel this?" The human asked actually picking the hand up and running his fingers over all of it. "What are even made of, Keratin?"

"Close, more like a metal laden chitin and no I can't really feel that. I can feel the pressure but we don't have the same sense of touch that humans do in their hands." Adrian let Dan explore for a moment longer before pulling back, he wasn't lying when he said that showing off their talons was a private thing and he felt a little exposed with the human running his soft fingers all over them. "They grow almost like your finger and toe nails do, have to be filed down every couple of weeks to keep them from getting too sharp. There are even some ointments that can soften the plates but that can cause all sorts of problems."

"People shouldn't try to hide who they are." Adrian blinked at that comment before holding up a talon and excusing himself for a second. When he came back he had two large bottles and a pair of shot glasses. "Oh you were serious about the getting drunk part of this evening."

"I keep my word, feed and drink." Dan grimaced as a large shot was placed in front of him. He could tell just from the smell that it was ryncol, why of all the levo alcohol did the bastard have to have ryncol.

"I think what you actually said was fed and _watered_." For some reason Dan found himself lifting the glass up anyway. "Cheers?"

"Cheers."

######

"Oh gods," Dan groaned, his head... actually he wasn't sure what his head was doing, trying to crawl out of his ears felt like an accurate description and the rest of his body seemed to be of the same idea. What the hell had he drunk?

Not daring to open his eyes for a moment, he tried to figure mouth where he was with his other senses. Which wasn't easy considering that his tongue felt like sand paper and his ears were pounding, doing their best to bash what little was left of his brain into sweet oblivion. He was laying on something half and half, soft and welcoming and hard and rough… and very uneven.

A little bit of blind fumbling later and Dan felt a plated arm tighten around him and pull him tight up against the hard and rough half of his equation. No. There was no way that he got so drunk as to sleep with Adrian… right?

The silence that question brought to his mind made Dan really need to know. Cracking open one eye the human whined softly at the light before a shape started to form… and it was not the one that he had been expecting.

"Morning." A gruff, very large and very awake Krogan said, a single sky blue eyes staring down at the human in his grip as the scaled arm pulled him a little closer. "Sleep well?" Either not willing or simply not able to process what was going on Dan went for plain honesty and nodded. Aside from his brain trying to liquefy itself he had in fact slept very well. "Good."

A few moments passed before Dan just had to ask. "How did I end up he…re? Actually where am I?" Still groggy he tried to look around him but couldn't really get a good impression of where he was, it looked like some kind of small dorm room with three double beds and a handful off lockers scattered around. Dan and the Krogan he was curtly cuddling with were in one and the other two had Turian's in. It took a second to recognise that Adrian was sprawled out on his front on one of the other beds, the other Turian was propped up against the wall reading from a data pad. "Are we still on the ship?" The gentle hum of the drive core really gave it away but being hungover made it hard to reach a logical conclusion.

"Yeah, you feeling okay? Not many humans survive drinking that much ryncol?"

Dan tried sitting up but decided it was a bad idea when the room started moving. "Head hurts." A grunt was his answer before a glass and a large pill were being held out in front of him curtesy of the other Turian in the room. Where did he get those from? "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." The drink came with a nice cool layer of gel over Dan's forehead. "Medi-gel, won't cure your hangover but it should stop your brain from trying to leave your skull." A grunt was all the answer he got, Daniel was more concerned with trying to hydrate his mouth before it decided to evaporate. "I'm Qunitus by the way and the Krogan you're getting all cuddly with is Darrak."

Dan groaned as he was shifted about on top of Darrak and glared at the hand that popped into his vision. "Nice to meet you." The bare chest, groin, back and arse that sauntered past him towards the door though, he didn't glare at.

Quintus was far more vocal though, growling with his sub harmonics. "Damn it Darrak! Could you at least attempt to be modest when we have a guest?" The response was a firm slap of one scaled rear cheek as the Krogan went out of the door. "Spirits give me strength."

"Well I can cross off 'seeing a Krogan naked' on my list of things to do before I die." Daniel chuckled, rolling onto his back proper now that Darrak was gone. Quintus looked concerned, before his noise twitched. "I stink don't I?"

A flicker of the Turian's mandibles was all the answer Dan really needed. "Are you well?"

"Let's find out," it took a good minute but with Quintus' help Dan was up and on his feet only feeling slightly nauseous. "I think I am good."

A small trill made Dan glance to the side, he hadn't heard that tone before. "I cannot understand why my idiot twin gave you ryncol."

A quick glance over at Adrian had Dan frowning. There were only three beds in here and if this Normandy was anything like the NORMANDY then there was a CO cabin on the top deck and Adrian said that he had three siblings. "So if you're the twin… who and where ar-"

"Darrak is our older brother."

"I take it you're not blood related," Daniel joked finally finding enough of his legs to walk towards the door, he needed water, a shower and a change of clothes he wasn't too fussed about the order either.

"Our mother was a large female."

Stare.

"That was a joke," Quintus said uncomfortably. "We were both adopted, actually all four of us were adopted if you want to get caught up in the details."

"So is the little brother a salarian?"

"No, he's human."

"Ah," So they were a racial mixed family that were insanely rich, had the Geth doing favors for them and hid out aboard a third gen Normandy class frigate. Who were these people? "Can I use your shower?"

The turian hummed for a second before he ushered Dan through the door. "I think you should probably eat something first, aft- DARRAK!"

"What?" Dan snapped his head around to look at the Krogan the same moment that Darrak jumped and looked to his younger brother. Dan had to look away just to stop himself from staring at areas that he probably should be staring at. They were still on the crew deck much to his surprise, the three brothers were using what was meant to be the XO quarters as their bedroom. "Don't scare me like that I thought something was wrong."

Dan glanced between the two, sensing an argument about to happen and decided to sit down. "Something is wrong!" Quintus growled, making a wild hand gesture. "We have a _guest_ and you are prancing around naked. You are making breakfast _naked_!"

"What's wrong with that, he isn't prudish. Are you?" A quick glance and shake of the head had Darrak cracking a wide grin. "See he doesn't care so why do you?"

"It is the principle. You should be decent for company."

"I am decent."

"Naked is not decent."

"Decent depends on the company."

"The definition of decent does not change based on the company. It is a set standard."

The pair went on for another few minutes and Daniel felt a stab of jealously that had nothing to do with the luxurious surroundings that this family was used to. Despite their argument Darrak had a clear smile on his face and Quintus' sub vocals were going a mile a minute in a way that Dan recognised as something loosely affiliated with being happy. They were both enjoying themselves as they argued.

"So this is what a family is supposed to be like."

Despite the distraction Dan had a plate loaded with toast and scrambled eggs set down in front of him curtesy of Darrak. The human poked the eggs for a minute marveling at the strange food before taking a bite.

"Nheto eggs." Darrak explained as he plated up some for himself and if Dan thought that his plate was loaded the krogans made his look like a child's portion.

"What's a Nheto?"

"A large lizard from some planet… somewhere." Darrak trailed off stuffing his mouth with a huge slab of bread and eggs.

"It is a reptilian animal native to one of the forests of Sur'Kesh," Quintus picked up, his mandibles quivering at his brother's actions. Dan tried to hide his smile, Darrak winking at him didn't help him though. "Shall we discuss your table manners now as well, brother?"

When Darrak opened his mouth again it was still full of food and Quintus looked ready to jump across the table and beat him but both froze when the elevator door swished open. It was so sudden that Dan actually glanced around, concerned that he had done something. The two brothers actually looked in his direction all traces of their humor just gone, it seriously scared him.

The sound of giggling coming from around the corner didn't help either. Was this the part where he was raped by the naked Krogan and dumped in the hold?

It turned out his fear wasn't justified. The person walking around the corner wasn't some crazed drug lord or anything sinister. It was another human being, the younger brother of this family and he looked like shit.

Daniel spent a minute just looking him over. He was a mess, his long dark hair was unkempt and greasy, there were stains on his clothes, Dan could smell the reek of booze from across the room and knew that if he could smell it hungover then it had to be bad. To top it off though the kid, because he couldn't have been more then eighteen or nineteen, had a Hallex inhaler and was taking a hit from it as he stumbled around the corner into the mess area.

Daniel glanced to the two aliens he was sat with and found something that threw him, anger and shame from Quintus and a glare from Darrak that seemed to be daring him to say something. He still jerked his head a shrugged hoping to get his question across to them.

"That's our little brother." The one with self-destructive tendencies Dan's brain helpfully informed him. If this was what Adrian was talking about then maybe Daniel was a bit harsh in his earlier judgements.

"Me?" he asked, popping the inhaler between his teeth to take another hit. Dan watched the smoke cloud around the other human's mouth before it was dragged in with an almost feline purr. "I'm Malcolm Andromeda… Nice to meet you."

######

 **Authors note: Well what do you think? The first few chapters are all devoted to character development. So I hope you like the characters.**

 **Remember reviews are love and hugs and I need hugs.**


End file.
